Florida Museum of Natural HistoryBy:Walter Preston

Nature on Display

When I first went through the museum I found many exhibits to be very interesting. The exhibit which was most memorable and capturing for me was the butterfly forest. The way that the exhibit was set up was very appealing. It seemed to immerse the museum visitor in dense tropical plant life with many butterflies of all different colors and sizes. It was very intriguing and made me feel like I was not in a museum any more. I felt like I was in a tropical rainforest. The exhibit first captured my attention with its lush green plant life, that I found very interesting due to my family being in the business of horticultural agriculture. By going through the butterfly exhibit I learned that these creatures and many others are a sight worth seeing in Florida. Their natural habitats are also a beautiful thing that many people do not realize are there. If not for the forest type atmosphere and being fully immersed in the exhibit, I most likely would not have learned the same things or gotten the same impression. The experience that I found most enjoyable was the ability to interact with the butterflies in the butterfly forest which was very stress relieving and joyful for me.

Nature and Ethics

As I walked around the museum, looking at the different exhibits, I did see nature in the way that Leopold wished for humans to see it. I saw pictures of animals that were either endangered or vulnerable to being endangered. These photos and displays helped me see that nature is not just a resource, but a beautiful thing that this earth has to offer. Seeing it in this sense can make peoples lives much more happy and content with where they live. I felt very happy and intrigued when seeing the beauty of Florida's different ecosystems. I had a sense of interest in where in Florida I could find these different places, and how much happier I would be if I began looking at nature in this same way. It also made me think about the environment where I live, and how I should learn to appreciate Florida's natural serenity and beauty. Other people were clearly seeing the nature in the same way by being intrigued by the butterflies and the whole environment of that exhibit, and by studying the photographs taken of such beautiful animals native to Florida. The Natural History Museum allowed its visitors to connect with the exhibits directly by setting up the museum in a way where the visitors had almost direct contact with Florida's different habitats. They did this with a combination of interactive exhibits, such as the butterfly forests, as well as visually appealing exhibits, such as the photos of the different endangered species. My experience in the museum did instill an ethical responsibility in that it makes me want to help preserve the environments beauty as best I can, so that others can see it in this way as well.

Nature and the Human Spirit

The Florida Museum of Natural History helps us step out of our ordinary lives by taking time to see what things get looked over like Florida's natural habitat. It is easy to overlook the natural environment when dealing with other things happening in life, but it is stress-relieving to look at nature and see its beauty, which is what the museum allowed me to do. This museum helps us better understand who we are by showing us that there are other organisms and beautiful things around us that are not made by humans. Realizing that the beauty of nature cannot be replicated by humans is something that helps us value its majesty.